Previous editions of the Annual Survey have reported arrests and detention of union activists just before Teachers’ Day, and 2010 was no exception. The anti-union campaign started once the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association published a statement demanding the release of unfairly imprisoned trade unionists. On 16 April a number of members of the Central Council of the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teacher Trade Associations from several towns were approached by the secret police and had to break up their meeting in Yazd.
On 24 April, three members of the Iranian Teacher Trade Association of Hamedan were summoned to the local secret police office. Ali Najafi was detained for 24 hours, and all of them were interrogated again on 26 April. Meanwhile, Mohammad Beheshti Langeroudi and Aliakbar Baghani were summoned to the Tehran Investigation Office of the Intelligence Ministry on 24 April for a few hours while their homes were searched by secret police. On 22 April, Tofigh Mortezapour and Hasan Kharatian of the Iranian Teacher Trade Association of Tabriz were summoned to the local secret police offices. On 26 April, Mortezapour’s house was searched and his personal items, including his computer and his notes, were confiscated. Ali Sadeghi and Mohammad Tavakoli of the Iranian Teacher Trade Association of Kermanshah were sentenced to flogging and fines by the criminal court in Kermanshah for “organising illegal gatherings” (teachers’ meetings) in 2006.